June 16th practice at the Coffee Connection
Lori
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Lori
OK
We had a good meeting last Tuesday, and have made up a playlist for the upcoming parade. Since we will be on a float, it would be best if we memorized the music so we could make eye contact with the audience. We have included a couple of our signature instrumentals to maintain our identity as more than just a sing and strum group. So we added Eleanor Rigby and Tijuana Taxi to the mix, and have decided to add instrumental solos to all the singing songs. Those of you that want to solo, here is your chance to shine. It would be nice to have harmony singing on This Land is your Land. If you see any good examples of effective harmony for that song, it might be nice to try out a couple of different approaches, and see which one works best for us.
New Songs are in the download folder marked Finalists in the 2015 July 4th Parade folder.
The Playlist to concentrate on:
Eleanor Rigby (instrumental)
Tijuana Taxi (instrumental)
Hound Dog (Elvis version)
Twist and Shout (Beatles version)
This Land is Your Land in C (with vocal harmony)
Born to be Wild (we have transposed from the original Em to Dm)
Here is the link to the event: http://business.laxcoastal.com/events/details/fourth-of-july-parade-american-beach-party-1061
Well, the first Santa Monica Ukulele Festival was great fun. Too bad it was on the same day as the Los Angeles Ukulele Expo downtown. I am sure it diluted and confused the local uke population. The evening concert at SOMOHi was a bargin at $15, and it benefited the Santa Monica High School music department. The high school orchestra was 80 pieces, and the young choral singers were all very good. Great to hear the ukulele performers, sometimes playing solo, other times, duets, and then sometimes with full orchestra. Quite a range, to be sure. Next year, I hope more people are aware of the festival. We had great fun playing in the ampitheater. Next time, we need more time for sound check. There were some songs where the balance was way off. Hard to know how to have more control in that area, but we should talk about it at the next meeting. As always, it was just as much fun reheasing for the event as the event itself. Thanks to all ... Jeff (who arranged our particiaption), Warren and Caroline (who hosted rehearsals), Howard, MJ, Delia, Jessica, Daffodil, and Amy.
Advance player to about 5 minutes for the start of our set.
–Lori
OK, our next meeting is coming up, and we might as well plan what we want to play. It has been suggested that the first 2 or 3 warm up songs be singing/ strum songs. So, for those of you who have a hankering for a song or so in that category, make your preferences known, so we can come prepared.
We should start plannig on what to play for the next YMCA showcase as well. Last time we decided that 2 instrumentals and one sing-a-long was a good combination. If we can choose the sing-a-long song, I can let Lidia know and she can spread the music to the other musicans in the show. I haven't heard the date yet, but it should be in March, on one of the Saturdays. Let's nominate 5 songs to consider, and keep the best 3. The sing-a-longs should be in a key we can comforably sing in, and not have too many fancy chords. We want it to be a guitar friendly experience. Maybe check out songs from Daily Ukulele vols 1 and 2.
So email me, or comment on the blog here with your suggestions.
–Lori
McCabe's Ukulele Ensemble, Christmas 2014 from Marijane Miller on Vimeo.
Thanks to everybody for another great show!